LutheranLectionary.org

Series A – Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Sunday, September 17, 2023 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:22	The holy Gospel
0:29	According to Saint Matthew the 18th chapter
0:38	Peter Kama came up and said to Jesus Lord how often will my brother sin
0:43	against me and I forgive him as many as seven times and Jesus said to him I do not say to
0:50	you seven times but Seventy Times Seven therefore the Kingdom of Heaven may be
0:55	compared to a King who wished to settle accounts with his servants when he began
1:00	to settle one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents and since
1:06	he could not pay his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children
1:11	and all that he had in that payment to be made so the servant fell on his knees
1:16	imploring him have patience with me and I will pay you everything and out of
1:21	pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt but when the same servant went out he
1:28	found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred daenery I and seized
1:34	him and he began to choke him saying pay what you owe so his fellow servant fell
1:39	down and pleaded with him have patience with me and I will pay you he refused
1:45	and he went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt when his fellow
1:50	servants saw what had taken place they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that
1:56	had taken place then his master summoned him and said to him you Wicked servant I
2:03	forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me and should not you have
2:08	had mercy on your fellow servant as I have had mercy on you and in Anger his
2:14	master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt so also
2:19	my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart this is the
2:27	gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus all right here are the words of a Psalm
2:33	that we’re all familiar with Psalm 103 and here’s an important section you may
2:38	know these words starting at verse 8 Yahweh the Lord he is merciful and
2:44	gracious slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love he will not always chide
2:51	nor will he keep his anger forever he does not deal with us according to our
2:56	sins nor does he repay us according to our iniquities for as high as the
3:01	heavens are above the Earth so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear Him and as far as the East is from
3:08	the West so far does he remove our transgressions from us Good gospel text
3:15	if you think about it and here’s the thing this is what we’re all banking on this is what we’re hoping for as
3:20	Christians because each and every one of us just like that fellow who well had to
3:27	have the records brought in and found that he owed 10 000 talents to that King you and I are
3:34	that fellow we owe a lot to God sin is often described in terms of debt and let
3:39	me tell you not a single one of us is able to begin to make payment on our sins and so we come to church every
3:47	Sunday in the hope and the expectation given to us by the scriptures that God
3:54	in Christ will forgive us of all of our sins is that not what we expect to hear
3:59	in the Absolution you’ll note that when the Absolution comes I do not say as I is a called nordained servant of the
4:05	word forgive you some of your sins the ones that are not very seedy well that’s
4:10	a different story altogether right I don’t say things like like that I say I forgive you all of your sins and the
4:16	reason why is simple because Christ has died for all of your sins not some of them he forgives us all of them and then
4:23	you’ll note in this Psalm I always would like to point this out is that it gives two different directions as far as high
4:29	as the heavens are above the Earth we got this vertical going on here uh so great is his steadfast love towards
4:36	those who fear Him and as far as the East is from the West a horizontal plane so far does he remove our transgressions
4:43	from us note that makes the sign of the cross I don’t think it’s an accident but all of that being said
4:50	it can any of us say that we have any sins against us no we cannot when it
4:57	comes to God so my question for you is this if God has forgiven you so great a
5:03	debt who are you to not forgive your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ when they sin against you and you’re
5:10	going to note something here I know this for a fact because I pastor this church and I know you all personally I can say
5:17	of every single one of you you’re all a rotten lot of Sinners and so is your
5:22	pastor right and so Peter asked an important question of Christ and this is on the tail end of that of that Jesus
5:30	giving well instructions on what to do when your brother sins against you right if your sins against you you go to your
5:36	brother privately and if he repents You’ve Won your brother if you don’t you bring two or three witnesses to establish the charge and if you won’t
5:42	listen to them then you bring it to the whole church and if you won’t listen to the whole church then and only then do you treat him like a Pharisee or not to
5:49	Pharisee attack collector or a sinner by excommunicating him well it it if you
5:54	kind of think of it this way is that in the kingdom of God no one is required to be forgiven if you don’t want to be
6:01	forgiven you don’t have to be forgiven the problem is is that you forfeit your citizenship with the Kingdom of Heaven if you don’t want to be forgiven if you
6:07	don’t want to repent but now the opposite kind of comes up the flip side of it well how Lord how often will my
6:14	brother sin against me and I forgive him kind of two parts of all of this and I’m going to note there as long as you guys
6:20	are breathing and you still have a sinful nature you’re going to sin against each other that’s going to happen here and how many times shall I
6:28	forgive my brother or sister when he sins against me or she sins against me and then he gives out what he thinks is
6:34	a generous number as many as seven times well the Pharisees said three you know
6:40	and it’s one two three strikes you’re out at the right and so it he’s thinking
6:45	all right I’ll go I’ll go higher than three we’ll take the seven days six days
6:50	of creation plus a day that God rested will throw it that sounds like a good biblical number I’ll forgive my brother
6:56	as many as seven times and Jesus says no no no no no no no no no I did not say to
7:02	you seven times but as many as seven times seven in other words what Jesus
7:07	basically said every single time your
7:12	brother or sister in Christ sins against you you forgive them
7:19	full stop and there’s a reason for this in fact let me kind of put the reason out there
7:26	right now in our Old Testament text we have an account here where yaakov that’s
7:32	a Joseph’s father also known as Israel because God changed his name he who wrestles with God and overcame he has
7:40	died okay and so his brothers if you remember how the story goes his brothers
7:45	sold Joseph into slavery and he went off into slavery in Egypt and things went
7:51	terribly for him at first because he ended up in a fellow’s house and then the boss’s wife was you know had the
7:59	hots for him and he rebuffed all of her advances and then ended up in prison for
8:04	it spent 13 years in an Egyptian prison of the ancient world not exactly known
8:10	for their great hygiene and and good smells and things like this 13 years and
8:15	if anybody could have followed that ancient Klingon proverb yeah revenge is
8:23	a dish best served cold that would have been Joseph right but did Joseph seek revenge
8:30	no not at all in fact Joseph came to realize that everything that he was made
8:36	to suffer was for good his good as well as the good of his family so that people
8:42	can survive but here’s the thing his brother is thinking well you know Joseph was just putting on a pretense he was
8:48	playing the big man and now that Dad is dead he’s going to really give it to us right and who would have who could have
8:55	faulted him for doing so right you know that would have made a little bit of sense wait for Dad to die and so they
9:01	Forge a message from Dad from the grave and they totally make this up whole cloth they sent a message to Joseph
9:08	saying your father gave this command before he died say to Joseph please
9:13	forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did Evil to you and now please forgive the
9:20	transgression of the Servants of the god of your father is any of this necessary
9:26	answer no none of it is necessary because Joseph knows full well that he’s
9:31	already forgiven them and that God knew what he was up to so Joseph wept
9:36	upon hearing this his brothers also came and they fell down before him and said behold we are
9:43	your slaves but Joseph said to them do not fear for am I in the place of God
9:51	and that’s where we have to recognize something and that’s this if Christ has
9:56	taken our sins and cast them as far as the East is from the West you figure out how far away that is by the way how far
10:03	is the east from the West I know how far it is from the North Pole to the South Pole we can kind of work that out mathematically right but how far is the
10:10	East is from the West if God doesn’t remember any of your sins
10:16	why on Earth are you going to
10:21	doesn’t make any sense when you start to put it that way because when you’re doing so you’re putting yourself in the
10:26	place of God I know that Jesus forgave you but I’m not I know better than Jesus oh trust me
10:34	brothers and sisters if this is your attitude you are standing on Shaky
10:40	Ground because you have just usurped Christ’s forgiveness and let me explain
10:46	something to you when we hear an Absolution when we hear that our sins are forgiven it is not as if Jesus is
10:52	some senile old grandpa running around handing out little lollipops and chocolate bars to his grandchildren and
11:00	saying oh I forgive you I forgive you forgiveness forgiveness forgiveness love love love love right this is not how
11:06	this operates at all instead every single AB solution is a Court verdict
11:12	that comes from the judge himself and have any of you ever noticed how how
11:18	absolutely jealously judges protect their Authority and their verdicts I one
11:25	of my favorite things to watch on tick tocks is the group of people called Karen’s and there’s a whole set of tick
11:31	tock videos that depict Karen’s in court now have you noticed that Karen’s have
11:38	no respect for anybody right guess what Karen’s have no respect for judges either and so when they lip off to a
11:45	judge and do the thing they do at the grocery store and out in public with everything it doesn’t go well for them
11:51	because the judge just flexes their Authority and muscles and say I’ve seen
11:56	several videos of these Karen’s being sent to jail you’re going to go to jail
12:02	for 90 days for not recognizing my Authority for
12:08	disrupting this court and for dishonoring the bench so when you refuse to forgive your
12:16	brothers and sisters in Christ when they’ve sinned against you you’ve become a Karen
12:22	and you’ve said I just Jesus you don’t know what you’re doing the gavel comes down I have declared
12:30	that person by verdict of the fact I’m the judge they are forgiven and innocent
12:35	who are you to overturn my verdict
12:41	in fact when you consider what Jesus says in our Parable today
12:49	the person who does this forfeits their own forgiveness
12:55	let that one settle in that’s how dangerous this is when you usurp Christ
13:02	and his judgment and you assert your own verdict over his you are behaving just
13:08	like the devil and this doesn’t go well so we read now how many times should I
13:17	forgive seven times no every single time
13:22	and this is the law portion of our sermon and hang on because it ain’t easy
13:29	law therefore the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a King who wished settle
13:35	accounts with his slaves I’m going to use the Greek term here doulas slave
13:40	okay let’s keep in mind here who’s in charge right Christ is King of Kings
13:46	Lord of lords we are merely servants slaves of Christ if you would so when he
13:53	began to settle one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents might
13:58	as well be a bazillion dollars good luck paying that thing off which kind of shows that this servant had some
14:04	Authority in this Kingdom authority over others that he would have a budget where
14:11	he could run up a debt like this and here’s the thing given the way this is written out the way Jesus tells this
14:17	Parable it’s kind of implying that had he not had this little come to Jesus meeting no pun intended on that that if
14:24	he hadn’t had this meeting with him that this fellow would have been all too happy just going on racking up even more
14:31	and more and more debt and so it was a mercy that he was
14:36	confronted with his debt and it’s found that he has a ginormous debt this is
14:42	your debt this is my debt and since he could not pay and none of us can
14:49	in fact if all you had to do was pay for one transgression of God’s holy law you
14:56	still couldn’t do it it has to be done for us and you’ll note
15:02	how is our debt paid with the blood of Christ
15:07	who suffered and died so that you and I can be forgiven and since he could not pay his master ordered him to be sold
15:14	with his wife his children all that he had and that payment be made
15:21	can anyone fault the judge the king from basically saying all right often sell
15:26	them into slavery off he goes him and his family and everybody else and let’s get what we can okay no one would have
15:32	faulted him for doing this but here’s what happens next the fellow falls on his knees state of prayer imploring him
15:41	have patience with me I will pay you everything he acknowledges that he owes the debt and so he’s not denying that he
15:47	has it he’s not deflecting in this sense but he’s delusional if he thinks that he can pay it and here’s the next bit
15:54	out of pitting this king’s splog needs Amai in the Greek his guts were wrenched
16:00	towards this fellow and he had sheer pity for him the master of the servant
16:06	released him and forgave him the debt all of it
16:11	in fact Colossians 2 makes it clear that the record of death that stood against you and I has been canceled by Christ
16:19	that big old spreadsheet that’s in our books that accounts for every single
16:25	transgressions of God’s holy law that whole section has been ripped out and nailed to the cross and you’ll note when
16:32	it comes to our sin debt somebody had to pay it and Christ paid it for you and
16:38	for I and it’s huge now in comparison we do sin against each
16:44	other I know this because I Pastor a church I live in a family I’ve been
16:49	around the block a few times I have human interactions despite the fact that I’m an introvert and prefer just to be
16:55	left alone right all of that being said we sin against each other I’ve sinned
17:01	against some of you some of you have sinned against me I’ve seen you guys sin against each other and you know what it
17:06	happens and it’s going to continue to happen until Jesus returns and we are finally
17:13	raised from the dead and no longer have sinned but here’s the thing in comparison the sin that you have been
17:19	forgiven compared to the sin that’s been committed against you is trivial
17:26	10 000 talents a talent is a hundred pounds 10 000 talents of gold would be a
17:34	hundred pounds of gold multiplied by ten thousand you figure out how much that is
17:39	and you’ll note that the guy who comes up next this fellow servant owes a
17:45	hundred denarii now a Denarius you will see this in next week’s Parable that
17:51	Jesus tells Daenerys is basically one day’s wage all right so you take a hundred Denarius
17:57	100 Daenerys you’ve got basically three and a half months worth of wages
18:03	that’s not a lot but it’s not insignificant right and when people sin
18:09	against you they do actually sin against you don’t they they do but can in comparison to what
18:17	you have been forgiven what other people have sinned against you is trivial
18:25	it doesn’t even compare it’s the national debt compared to your
18:31	car payment that’s what we’re talking about here right so you would think that it would
18:38	be a lot it’d be really easy to forgive but it isn’t and the reason why is because we’re Sinners too right and the
18:45	reality is is oftentimes as Sinners when we’re sinned against what do we want we want Justice we want that person to pay
18:52	how dare you do this and such to me right but this is out of bounds
19:00	in the church because note when Peter asked the question how often will my brother sin against me
19:08	he’s not talking about blood siblings here he’s talking about blood bot siblings
19:14	Brothers and Sisters in Christ so this fellow who’s now had the
19:19	national debt forgiven for him literally just had the whole debt canceled he should be singing praises to God most
19:27	high and out there being as generous as possible because he’s been forgiven such a debt an insurmountable debt that he
19:33	had no chance of paying when he left he found a fellow servant of his that owed
19:39	him a hundred denarii and listen to this he seized him and began to choke him what kind of murderous behavior is that
19:47	pay me what you owe me it’s ugly to even figure out what this looked like right
19:54	and choking somebody that’s an act of wanting to kill them of murdering them
20:00	where’s his love for those who are forgiven
20:07	it’s nowhere to be seen and that’s the problem pay what you owe
20:12	his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him and here we have a great example of one of those things where you
20:19	see this we’ve seen this before it’s like deja vu all over again is when it ever happened before but Deja
20:27	Vu is when it’s happened never mind you get what I’m saying deja vu all over again have patience with me I will pay
20:33	you and with a hundreds in area that’s most likely the case the fellow
20:38	recognized that he owed the debt had no problem saying that he’ll pay it and legitimately was able to pay it but
20:45	here’s the problem two important words he refused
20:56	and that’s the problem he refused
21:02	so when somebody sins against you here in this congregation or in the wider Body of Christ and they’re Christians
21:08	and they come to you and say please forgive me I’ve sinned against you and
21:13	you say go pound sand I refuse to be reconciled to you
21:20	you are in deep danger at this point you do not have the freedom to refuse
21:29	forgiveness to a brother and sister in Christ he refused so he went and he put him in
21:35	prison until he should pay the debt when his fellow slaves saw what had
21:41	taken place they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place and here’s the thing when Christians refused
21:48	to forgive Christians this is not a sin that only in fact impacts you and impacts all of us
21:54	right it is the ugliest thing in the Christian church when Christians refuse
22:00	to forgive Christians it Grieves us all your sin impacts us all to the point
22:06	where we are now offering up prayers on your behalf to Christ asking Christ to
22:12	soften your heart to do something about the Injustice that is taking place because it is not right among those who
22:19	are forgiven that we do not forgive and in case you’re not familiar with the Lord’s Prayer which you should be
22:25	praying several times a day we are constantly reminded of this fact when we pray forgive us our trespasses as we
22:33	forgive those who trespass against us and you can sit there and say but you
22:39	don’t understand how much that person gets under my skin you have no idea how annoyed by them I am you have no idea
22:45	what they’ve done to me really really
22:52	so he refused put him in prison and now the body of Christ is in distress and the reporting praying to Christ to do
23:00	something so then his master summoned him and said to him you Wicked servant I forgave you all that debt because you
23:06	pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant your fellow slave as
23:13	I have had mercy on you oh believe me when I tell you that you
23:18	being forgiven puts a moral obligation on you to forgive and don’t think for a second you’re
23:25	going to get out of it because when you refuse to forgive you
23:30	are taking the place of God and you are overturning Christ’s verdict it is not to be said among Christians
23:38	it is not to be done and so in anger
23:43	his master delivered him to the let me translate this one this is an interesting word I know it says jailers
23:49	in the ESV but it’s actually stronger than that let me hand him over to the
23:55	torturers it’s an allusion to hell
24:01	and the tortures that await those who are Unforgiven
24:06	deliver them to the torturers until he should pay all his debt and so my heavenly father will do to every one of
24:12	you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart
24:17	now note at the end of reading this I said this is the gospel of the Lord I may have fudged a little bit there this
24:24	is the law right this is the law and brothers and sisters I know this is hard
24:29	I know it is hard because I’m married and those of you who are married know exactly what I’m talking about right
24:36	because what happens in a marriage you put two sinners in close proximity to each other and we get under each other’s
24:42	skin and we then trade off sinning against each other and when we sin
24:47	against each other what do we have to do we have to apologize and then the other person has to say I forgive you and how
24:53	many times in the anger In the Heat of the Moment because your spouse has sinned so horribly against you and they
24:59	said I’m sorry please forgive me did you say these words I forgive you
25:06	right why did you say it that way
25:11	because you knew full well you needed to forgive that person but you didn’t feel it at all
25:18	right I’m not feeling it right
25:25	that’s because of our sinful nature we have to recognize where that comes from
25:30	isn’t it great that when we come to church and we ask Christ to forgive us he doesn’t have the pastor’s sake I
25:36	forgive you right freely and abundantly I forgive you no
25:43	no we instead receive a full pardon from Christ and so the idea then is this
25:50	is that although everything within you is Bucking against this and you’re not
25:55	feeling it your feelings are real but they’re not telling you the truth
26:02	and even your feelings have to bend the knee to Christ the forgiven forgive the reconciled are
26:10	reconciled to each other and so our life together in this congregation is going
26:16	to be continue to be one where we step on each other’s toes where we sin against each other where we hurt each
26:23	other grievously and when that happens we need to seek the other person’s
26:29	repentance but also seek it for the purpose of there being reconciliation and
26:35	forgiveness and mercy it is out of place for any Christian to refuse to forgive a brother in Christ
26:43	it is not appropriate and Christ has defended this Doctrine with threats of
26:49	Hell itself basically saying to the one who refuses to forgive that Christian
26:54	has forfeited their right to forgiveness themselves it is a strong tonic it is a stiff drink
27:05	but one that we must soberly remember in fact if you were to think of it this way
27:11	the only unforgivable sin is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit but this is something completely different
27:16	this is the person who wants Christ’s forgiveness but refuses to give that
27:22	same forgiveness to others this is not blasphemy against the holy spirit this is blasphemy against the Cross of Christ
27:28	and against Christ the judge himself and in so doing that person has forfeited
27:34	their right to be forgiven may this never be among us
27:40	and where it exists we must repent and where we do not feel like we are going
27:46	to forgive somebody damn your feelings and do the right thing and forgive and your feelings will follow later
27:55	instead listen to Christ he knows what he’s talking about it is important that
28:00	the forgiven forgive and the reconciled be reconciled to each other so much so
28:05	that he’s threatened eternal hell for those who refuse so let this not be you
28:11	in fact if this is you repent repent and recognize your wickedness and
28:18	repent and understand that you have usurped Christ’s Authority and you have put yourself in the place of God and you
28:25	have overturned his verdict of forgiveness by refusing to forgive
28:30	and let us know this then that even for us there is mercy and forgiveness and Grace for all who repent of the sin and
28:38	recognize that it is the right thing to do to forgive because they are forgiven and that there is full pardon and peace
28:44	and reconciliation with Christ for all who recognize the sin and then do the
28:50	right thing and are reconciled with each other I can’t think of a better way to end the
28:57	sermon there except for to note this that Christ has had pity on us all
29:02	you and I rather than getting what we deserve instead we have received
29:08	complete Mercy full pardon Grace the the expunging of every one of our
29:14	transgressions because Christ has bled and died for them all and he did this joyfully he did this for the joy that
29:21	was before him knowing full well that at the end of his crucifixion and death was
29:27	full reconciliation and pardon with you and with I so that we having been
29:32	estranged from God by our own Rebellion can be brought back as children forgiven
29:38	and pardoned and the joy of Heaven be given to us and God himself having the joy of having being reconciled back to
29:46	his airing children the ones he was estranged from so that there can be joy in the kingdom of God
29:52	you’ll note that with every sinner that repents there is a party that goes on in heaven Christ describes it this way that
29:59	the Angels rejoice and party with every single sinner who repents and you’ll
30:04	note then you become the killjoy of the Party by refusing to forgive that’s the
30:11	second half of that Parable by the way the parable of the of the Prodigal Son the one son who refused to be reconciled
30:19	to his father because he dared to forgive the son who sinned against him
30:24	so note then the scriptures are clear it is absolutely unpardonable
30:30	to not forgive those who are forgiven by Christ let this not be you in the name
30:36	of Jesus Amen

If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to: Kongsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th Ave NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message, and, again, thank you for listening.